Professor Inchan Kwon's research team demonstrates the feasibility of using gold nanoparticles to treat gout
□ Minister Yang-hee Choi of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said, "The use of gold nanoparticles * capable of degrading harmful substances in the human body has been proposed as a biomedical solution to reduce the adverse effects of gout treatment and to increase the therapeutic efficacy."
* Gold nanoparticles: gold nanoparticles that are 1 to 100 nanometers in size
Gout is a disease caused by accumulation of uric acid in the body. Urate oxidase is a treatment for gout that generates hydrogen peroxide while decomposing uric acid. Hydrogen peroxide oxidizes iron in the hemoglobin, which reduces the blood's ability to transport oxygen, and can cause side effects such as methemoglobinemia * in patients with poor hydrogen peroxide decomposition.
* Methemoglobinemia: Hemoglobin carries oxygen in the blood. Methemoglobinemia is a disease in which the iron in the hemoglobin is oxidized and cannot bind with oxygen, thereby impairing oxygen transport. The lack of oxygen turns the body blue and is sometimes called cyanosis.
□ Professor Inchan Kwon the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) conducted research with support from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. Professor Kwon's research team demonstrated that using urate oxidase in conjunction with gold nanoparticles can help treat gout by converting the potentially cytotoxic hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen.
Hyperuricemia is defined as having an abnormally high uric acid concentration in the blood. It causes diseases such as kidney disease, cardiovascular diseases, and gout. In particular, gout is known to affect more than 8 million patients in the United States and more than 300,000 patients in Korea.
To treat hyperuricemia, such as gout, Pegloticase was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, but in the process of decomposing uric acid, hydrogen peroxide is produced, which can damage cells because of its strong oxidizing reaction. Excess hydrogen peroxide causes various side effects, such as Methemoglobinemia, and it can slow the further degradation of uric acid. So there is a need to eliminate excess hydrogen peroxide in order to reduce side effects that may occur during the treatment of gout.
2. Research method
In this study, nanoparticles were used to eliminate the hydrogen peroxide that was generated when the urate oxidase degraded the uric acid. Gold nanoparticles, which are known to be harmless and chemically stable in the human body, can reduce hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen.
○ Experimental results confirmed that oxygen bubbles were generated when the gold nanoparticles decomposed the hydrogen peroxide. Also, it was confirmed that smaller gold nanoparticles were more efficient at reducing the hydrogen peroxide because of its larger surface area.
In addition, the presence of gold nanoparticles with urate oxidase increased the uric acid more than five times faster than when urate oxidase was used without the gold nanoparticles.
3. Research results
○ Hydroxylase produces hydrogen peroxide when uric acid is decomposed. Gold nanoparticles can reduce the hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen, thereby improving the efficiency of urate oxidase.
○ This study showed that gold nanoparticles can be used effectively for the treatment of gout. However, in the future, the expectation is that other nanoparticles having various functions will be in conjunction with biopharmaceuticals to treat other diseases.
Professor Inchan Kwon said, "This study used a combination of urate oxidase and gold nanoparticles to solve the problem of hydrogen peroxide generation in current therapeutic gout treatment option. As a result, we have for the first time shown that the use of gold nanoparticles improves the efficacy of biopharmaceuticals. Although further animal experiments and clinical experiments will be required, it is very significant that we have discovered a new way to treat various diseases, such as gout and kidney disease."
